1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the manufacture and recapping of automobile and truck tires, and more particularly to apparatus for cleaning a selected surface portion of the liner of a tire in preparation for application of a weight patch or a weighted substance thereto.
2. Description of the Prior Art
After a tire has been manufactured or recapped, the tire may be passed through a Uniformity Correction Machine of the general type illustrated and described in an article, "Drives and Bearings Round Out Tire Production," published on pages 55-59 of the September, 1974 issue of Power Transmission Design magazine.
Briefly, this Uniformity Correction Machine operates to spin balance the tire, determine the magnitude and location of the imbalance, and to grind the tire to attempt to bring it within acceptable balance limits.
However, grinding is not used to correct all imbalanced tires because the extent of grinding needed to bring some tires into balance would result in an out-of-round tire or would interfere with the cords thereof.
With such tires of large imbalance, it has been the practice to apply a weight patch or weighted dough to the light point of the tire to bring the tire within permissible balance limits.
However, before such patch or dough is applied, it is usually necessary to clean at least a selected portion of the tire liner of mold release agents remaining from the tire formation process so that the patch or dough will adhere to the tire liner.
One example of a machine to clean a tire liner is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,825,965, which discloses apparatus for cleaning the entire liner of a tire.